


Uzume - Silk

by RoeDusk



Series: Tapestry - Prologue [10]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Other, The Hyuuga clan has a shrine to the Sun and Healing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 21:03:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11216232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoeDusk/pseuds/RoeDusk
Summary: There has always been a Shrine in the Hyuuga Clan, and there are always Priestesses dedicated to its keeping.





	Uzume - Silk

Since the ages of their ancestors the Hyuuga kept a shrine and priestesses to watch over it. They’d moved enough times that the location wasn’t the most important part. It was the purity, the sanctuary any clan member could venture into to find peace of mind amid a tended garden or two, where priestesses trained to help heal a mind. The Hyuuga had long been prone to seeing what should not be seen, and the shrine had been created to try and help them through such times.

When the Curse Mark had been created the clan understood how it could increase the corruption that builds in the mind, so the shrine had proposed a compromise. A priestess would be assigned to the main family, treated as one of their own with all the powers that entailed, and work to keep the clan from breeding resentment and scars. Somewhere along the ages that followed this priestess became the traditional wife for the Clan Head. This gave her more power, but slowly started eroding her ability to be impartial, oftentimes defending her children over the clan as a whole. Such was the price of war, and of family.

When the Hyuuga were invited to join Konoha there came a time of peace. Priestesses were no longer required in the field, instead remaining at the site of the new shrine - helping in the building or maintaining the purity of the space. No longer required to kill they remained purer as well, better able to cleanse the darkness that plagued their clansmen.

If only they still had the power to do so.

Uzume’s predecessor had given the Clan Head too much leeway. Limited her power to the grounds of the shrine and not beyond, bowing to his commands while in the rest of the compound, playing dutiful wife. Uzume’s father in law still believed himself to command the Hyuuga, even after stepping down and passing the reins to his son. He thought himself a puppet master who controlled both the Clan and the Shrine. Uzume had no intention of allowing that to happen.

Hiashi was used to being led, told too many times that “That’s just the way things are.” At home he was used to his father’s rule, objecting quietly when Uzume argued. So she carved out control of the Shrine for herself. Hiashi saw no issue with this, countering his father’s arguments against it with Tradition. The old man didn’t like his own tools being used against him, but there was little he could do.

They watched each other in a stalemate, Uzume endlessly frustrated with being similarly blocked. If a family member did not seek sanctuary in the shrine, Hiashi saw no reason to allow her access to them, no matter how badly their mental state had deteriorated. And her daughters, her poor daughters, were left to their Grandfather’s tutelage. Hinata - who should have been a Priestess, a protector - at least tried to listen, paying attention to the causes of corruption and how to try and heal a scarred mind. But Hanabi watched her mother and sister in confusion, unable to reconcile their worldview with hers. And Neji, the boy Hiashi was so sure should have been clan head rather than their daughters, suffered in bitter silence without her. She only hoped his uncle had a chance to reach him, for she could not.

So Uzume focused on extending her power in fits and starts, reaching for those hurt by so-called tradition as her closest family remained beyond her reach. Even Hiashi, who looked at her as an alien benevolence, wouldn’t come to the shrine and speak of his wounds. And if she couldn’t convince her husband, her clan head, to let her perform her duty then what was left?

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure I got the worldbuilding across in this, but it's more or less what I was going for.


End file.
